Bruises
by Lilae Kane
Summary: Neville and Luna haven't spoken for years. Will a chance meeting at an ice cream parlour reunite them?


Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or the HP-verse, JKR does!

* * *

 **Bruises**

Luna Scamander sat at one of the booths in Florean Fortesque's ice cream parlour, sipping a butterbeer float with a straw. Her platinum blonde hair cascaded down her back, and she wore a pale blue sundress with her large radish earrings. Her round eyes scanned the room, though she didn't seem to notice the world around her.

The whole of the shop was a mint green colour, from the walls to the 60's diner style leather booths.

The bells attached to the parlour doors tinkled as a tall blond man strode in and across the shop to speak to Florean Fortesque himself, who, smiling, let the man through the Employees Only door to his office. Most patrons would perceive this as strange, but Luna, whose dreamy expression had changed to one of alert curiosity when Neville Longbottom entered the parlour, knew that Mr. Fortesque was Neville's grandfather.

Five minutes later, Florean rushed out without a word, tinkling bells the only sound that accompanied his exit. Neville, however, was left in the parlour with the patrons. He made a quick survey of his options, and, though he hadn't seen Luna in ten years, made a beeline towards her booth as soon as they had made eye contact.

"D'you mind if I take a seat?" Neville asked, having stopped in front of Luna with his hands stuffed in his pockets, his shoulders tensing as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"You can sit," Luna said, smiling up at him, stirring her drink with the forefinger and thumb of her right hand. "You don't have to be nervous."

"Oh." He sank into the shiny mint-shaded seat across from Luna, elbows on the table. "Hi."

"Hello."

Silence filled the shop. Florean Fortesque's assistant was still taking orders, yes, but most of the conversation had ceased. Neville felt as if he ought to say something, and found himself scrambling to remember any little detail about Luna that he could. He couldn't have told her what he was actually thinking, which was that she was still beautiful after the war and the ten years that followed; still had this innocence about her eyes that hadn't been dampened by the war or the increased publicity she'd been thrust into for marrying a descendant of Newt Scamander.

Neville ended up saying something completely different than anything he'd been turning over in his head, and even so, botched it up because he felt inexplicably nervous. "I, um, heard you have kids?"

Luna nodded, her free hand tucking a stray hair behind her ear, the very picture of calm. "Oh yes, twins. Lorcan and Lysander. Ginny's taking them to a Muggle film today. They wanted to go with their father, but it's been two years since our divorce, and I thought he would be busy."

Luna didn't seem at all perturbed by this; she simply sipped her butterbeer through her purple straw, watching Neville with a pleasant expression on her face.

He had no idea what to say.

Another silence permeated the shop, settling like dust over the two former schoolmates. Neville tapped his foot.

"I heard from Harry that you were staying at a hotel down the road. I thought you lived at the Leaky Cauldron when you weren't at Hogwarts," Luna said suddenly, her eyes curious.

"Oh, no. I'm actually looking for a place in Hogsmeade. It's not a question of distance, but if anyone asks, it is closer…"

"It's good to know that you got free," Luna said absentmindedly. Neville's expression shifted to one that was confused, maybe angry. She didn't clarify how or what she knew about his divorce with Hannah - maybe she didn't need to.

More silence.

"You seem a bit uncomfortable."

He was. He'd thought he'd been good at hiding it, but evidently Luna was still as perceptive as usual - and without a filter. He just looked at her, unsure of whether he could trust himself with words or not. It was horrible.

"Why did you come?"

Normally, and especially having felt awkward before, Neville would have taken offense at this blunt question, but Luna sounded merely curious, and he forced himself to calm whatever was rising in him at the moment. He didn't think she had been meaning to insult him; she never was, but often she said things that other people thought about but didn't think would be appropriate. He admired that in her, but it didn't make him any more eager to answer her question.

"Oh, um...I had to talk to my grandfather."

"About your parents?" There were those eyes again; they were kind, but Neville always felt as if Luna knew exactly what he was feeling.

"Y-yes." Neville rubbed at a smudge on the table in front of him with his forefinger so that he didn't have to meet Luna's gaze. "They're all right, just. Different. The Healers at St. Mungo's wanted to make sure…"

Luna set down her empty glass. She wasn't going to fake pity at him, or tell him he should go. Even without having seen her in a long time, he knew this. Instead: "Would you like to take a walk?"

"All right."

They both stood. Luna went first, pushing the wooden mint-coloured door of the shop gently, the bells going as they left. Outside, the awkwardness that Neville had been feeling gradually ebbed away, leaving him free to chat with Luna about his teaching at Hogwarts, her taking over Quibbler publication, a Muggle film they had both seen a few weeks ago without a great deal of blushing on his side.

They passed Flourish and Blotts, where a few copies of Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them were sitting on display, the covers shining as if they were made of glass.

"Have you seen him?" Neville asked, nodding toward the book. Luna blinked at him. His question, Neville realized, was quite vague. "Rolf, I mean. I read about his expedition to find a Crumple Horned Snorkack. I was surprised you weren't in the article as well."

Are you still in love? He wanted to say this, but did not, and remembered that, minutes ago, she'd mentioned having a divorce. He was about to apologize when she said, "Not in years. How about Hannah?"

Touché, he thought.

"No, but I hear she's moved to Wales with the man of her dreams."

He wasn't bitter about it, per se. He was simply a bit miffed that one day, he had woken up to an empty bed and a flat emptied of half its contents without a hint or word. He'd heard about her new lover from Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Funny, back then she said that about you."

Neville would have suspected Luna to be lying if he didn't know how truthful she really was. The way she said it, though - with a conversational air, and yet he felt something pass between them, as if she had squeezed his hand and drawn away before he'd noticed.

"Thanks."

The silence that passed between the pair next was not as uncomfortable as the ones before. If anything, it was nice, as Luna and Neville kept pace with each other, a slight breeze dancing through the hot July air.

"You'll never guess who I saw last week," Luna said, after a minute, curling a long lock of blonde hair around her finger. "Remember Seamus and Dean?"

"'Course I do. We were best friends, practically."

"They said that you'd formed an official Dumbledore's Army club at Hogwarts. Is it because you missed it?"

Neville hesitated. He could have listed a million reasons besides missing the meetings in fifth year for keeping the DA running, and with anyone else, he would have, but with Luna, he knew he could tell his most honest, and least known, reason. She wouldn't judge him.

"It was. I really enjoy it. It's like a student-on-student tutoring organization mixed with a club that promotes activism in the wizarding world now. I'm quite glad to be a part of it."

Luna said nothing, only nodded. Her silence spoke, though, and it was as good a response as any.

Suddenly(suddenly? hElp lol), a dark owl with bright yellow eyes swooped down, seemingly out of thin air, and landed on Neville's arm, its claws foreign and strange on his skin. There was a small slip of parchment in its beak.

 _Come to St. Mungo's._

He didn't need a signature to know who it was from.

Luna was smiling at him, but it was bittersweet - the most bittersweet he'd ever seen her, at least - as if she knew what he was going to say.

"Well, I suppose I should...go, you know? But we should...we should meet up again sometime. Officially."

"Sometime before the next ten years has gone by, yes, that would be nice."

He was folding up the note, looking down at his hands, when Luna unexpectedly stood up on her toes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

"I'll see you later," she said, her eyes glittering, then turned and skipped down the road.


End file.
